POLICY REPORT DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING Date: October 20, 1995 Dept. File No. PAJ TO: Vancouver City Council FROM: Director of Land Use and Development SUBJECT: Billboards RECOMMENDATION A. THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to prepare an amendment to the Sign By-law to no longer permit billboards in the city, and that the By-law be referred to a Public Hearing. As an alternative, the following is presented for CONSIDERATION. B. THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to prepare an amendment to the Sign By-law to simplify and clarify the regulations which permit billboards in the city, and that the By-law be referred to a Public Hearing. GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A and puts forward B for CONSIDERATION in place of A. COUNCIL POLICY Council policy, as reflected in the Sign By-law, is to allow billboards in several commercial and all industrial zoning districts, subject to location, spacing, height and size restrictions. Council policy with respect to billboards on City-owned sites controlled by Real Estate Services is to permit renewal of existing billboard leases but not to enter into any new leases. SUMMARY If the Sign By-law is to continue to permit billboards, the billboard regulations must be simplified and clarified to eliminate endless discussions taking place between staff and billboard industry representatives on by-law interpretation, to ensure that the regulations are applied consistently and fairly, to streamline billboard permit processing and to free up staff time for processing other sign permits. - 2 - However, staff feel that the time has come for Vancouver to get in line with its neighbouring municipalities and no longer permit billboards. Consequently, staff recommend an amendment to the Sign By-law to prohibit new billboards. If Council disagrees with RECOMMENDATION A, staff believe amendments are needed to simplify and clarify the billboard regulations, as set out in CONSIDERATION B. PURPOSE This report recommends that Council amend the Sign By-law to prohibit any new billboard signs in the City of Vancouver. BACKGROUND Vancouver's neighbouring municipalities (Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Moody, North and West Vancouver) all prohibit billboards. According to a billboard industry representative, Vancouver is one of only four municipalities in the entire Province which allows new billboards (Nanaimo, Kamloops and Prince George being the others). Billboards are permitted in four C (commercial) districts, DD, BCPED, all M and I (industrial) districts, and any CD-1 district which has been assigned to one of the above districts for sign regulation purposes. Some restrictions apply which prohibit billboards on portions of Georgia and Burrard Streets, above bridge decks and ramps, and above the ALRT guideway. Until a few years ago, the billboard industry in Vancouver was dominated by one company, Seaboard Advertising Company. There are now two other companies in the Vancouver market. The competition for billboard sites has led to innumerable challenges of staff's interpretation of the Sign By-law billboard regulations, and an increasing number of appeals to the Board of Variance. From January to mid-October 1995, the Board of Variance heard 19 billboard appeals, all but one of which were opposed by staff. Seven appeals were allowed. In the same period, sign permits for 49 billboards were issued, and 22 were refused, or withdrawn due to non-compliance with By-law regulations. Planning and Permits and Licenses staff are very concerned about what is happening with billboard applications and permits. These concerns include: - the amount of time required to process billboard sign applications (estimated at a minimum of four hours per application) due to the need to site check each application because staff cannot rely on the applicant's submitted information; - 3 - - the amount of time required to explain and defend staff's interpretation of the By-law's regulations, often in response to one billboard company questioning why a permit was issued to a competing company; - the effect that billboard processing time is having on the processing of other sign applications; - the uncertainty about whether staff's interpretation of the billboard regulations is enforceable; and - the visual impact of billboards on the city in general, and on residential developments which are increasingly located in districts which allow billboards. Section 10.3 of the Sign By-law, which contains most of the regulations which apply to billboards, is attached as Appendix A. The regulations which are causing the most interpretive problems are flagged with a dot in the left margin, and examples of the problems are given below the regulations. DISCUSSION If the Sign By-law is to continue to permit billboards, many of the billboard regulations need to be rewritten to remove ambiguity and the need for staff interpretations, and to ensure that Council's intent with respect to billboards is clearly articulated. However, before staff spend time rewriting the regulations, staff would like Council to consider whether it wishes to continue to permit billboards in the city. If Council disagrees with staff's recommendation to prohibit billboards, staff will undertake the work to bring forward recommended amendments to the By-law to allow billboards to continue to be permitted. Billboards are one of only two types of signs permitted in the city which can contain exclusively third-party advertising. (Signs in conjunction with a mural are also permitted to be exclusively third- party advertising but the sign is limited to ten percent of the area of the mural. Council also allowed various third-party advertising signs for GM Place.) Third-party advertising refers to the advertising of a product or service which is not available on the site at which the sign is located. The restriction on third-party advertising is based on a fundamental principle of the Sign By-law that the main function of signage is to identify the location of a business or organization, with advertising a secondary benefit. - 4 - Billboards are considerably larger than most other permitted signs in the city. Because of their cost, most billboard advertisements are for multi-national or national businesses (McDonald's, Air Canada). However, some are for local developments and events (Oakridge Centre, Showboat), and charitable organizations (United Way). Billboards utilize public streets for advertising purposes. The City has committed significant staff resources to improving streets through design control of private developments, and by requiring or providing street trees, decorative paving, and street furniture. Staff question whether continued allowance of large, often unsightly third-party advertising signage is consistent with other public realm objectives and efforts. Staff note that there are no discretionary provisions in the Sign By- law. Consequently, a billboard permit cannot be refused because of the billboard's negative impact on the streetscape, views or adjacent residential development, if the billboard complies with By-law regulations. It will be difficult to draft billboard regulations which will prevent all future undesirable situations, even if the regulations are more restrictive than present. In staff's view, billboards have no public benefit to justify the erection of such large, often unsightly signage which uses city streets and lanes for advertising purposes. (Bus shelters, on the other hand, which also contain billboard-type advertising, do provide a public benefit by way of weather protection and seating for transit users.) Staff also question whether it is reasonable to continue to prohibit first-party signage on the side of a mid-block building when a billboard is allowed there. The prohibition of first-party signs on the sides of mid-block buildings was intended to reduce sign proliferation by limiting signage to street frontages, and to businesses occupying that frontage. However, this objective is undermined in those districts where billboards are permitted. Staff also note that billboards are increasingly across from or near to residential developments since there is no regulation which prohibits billboards close to residential premises. Staff have recently had complaints from the strata-corporation of two major developments about a new billboard constructed across the street. The impact of billboards on residential premises will become more widespread as residential units are added in areas which permit billboards such as Downtown and the Marathon and Concord-Pacific lands. - 5 - On the other hand, staff recognise that the billboard industry will be significantly affected if no new billboard are allowed. In addition to opposition from billboard companies, Council can expect the companies and organizations who advertise on billboards, including charitable organizations, to oppose any amendment which would prohibit new billboards. However, staff feel that the negative visual impact of billboards outweighs their benefits and consequently recommend that an amendment to the Sign By-law to prohibit billboards be referred to Public Hearing. The billboard industry, and companies and organizations which advertise on billboards, would be given the opportunity to present their case for billboards at the Public Hearing. If Council decides not to prohibit billboards at the Public Hearing, staff would subsequently prepare recommended amendments to simplify the billboard regulations for consideration at a future Public Hearing. Staff are not recommending that Council order removal of non-conforming billboards. While Council has the power to order the removal of any sign that has been non-conforming for more than five years (and many existing billboards are non-conforming to current regulations), staff do not feel forced removal is warranted since site redevelopment will reduce the number of billboards over time. However, Council could order removal at any time in the future, and should Council amend the By-law to prohibit billboards, all billboards would be non-conforming in five years and subject to Council's powers of removal. City revenues from billboards on City-owned sites (approximately $100,000 a year) would not be affected by a prohibition amendment since staff are not recommending that existing billboards be removed, and Council policy is not to allow new billboards on City-owned land controlled by Real Estate Services. CONCLUSION Staff recommend that the Sign By-law be amended to no longer allow billboards. If Council disagrees with RECOMMENDATION A, staff put forward as CONSIDERATION B, amendments to the By-law to simplify the billboard regulations to remove ambiguity and to enable billboard applications to be processed efficiently and fairly. APPENDIX A Page 1 of 3 SIGN BY-LAW BILLBOARD REGULATIONS (- Indicates regulations which are causing problems. Explanation of problems follows regulations) 10.3 Billboards 10.3.1 Number No more than four billboards in respect of any site shall be permitted, provided that each may have two copy areas mounted back to back and be indexed. 10.3.2 Location and Spacing (a) A billboard shall not encroach over a street; - (b) A billboard shall not be located closer to a street than the front face of the nearest building or beyond a straight line drawn between the nearest points of any two separate building faces fronting the street when the billboard is located between the two buildings; PROBLEMS: 1. What is meant by "front face", particularly on a corner site? 2. In drawing a line between two separate building faces, how far afield should regulation apply if the buildings are located a long way from each other - across a street, more than a city block? - (c) A single-faced billboard shall be located not more than 2 m from the wall of a building and shall be parallel to such wall, except that this distance may be increased up to 7.5 m where the back face of the billboard is constructed with an outer finish which conceals all structural components; PROBLEM: 1. To get around this regulation and Section 10.3.2(e), on next page, a double-faced billboard angled to the wall was proposed, even though the back face of the billboard was not visible to anyone. - (d) The spacing between billboards on the same street, facing the same traffic flow, shall be not less than 90 m, measured along the street; APPENDIX A Page 2 of 3 PROBLEMS: 1. What is meant by "facing" traffic flow - do billboards placed parallel to a street face traffic flow? 2. On corner sites, what determines the street on which the billboard is located - orientation of billboard? distance to closest street? orientation of buildings, if there are any? street to which site is assigned for addressing purposes? (e) A billboard shall be located no closer than: (i) 60 m, measured perpendicularly to the face of the billboards at its midpoint, to any Residential Area as identified in Section 9.2; (ii) 5 m to a street when the sign face is parallel to or forms an angle of less than 30 degrees with such street; (iii) 30 m to any parking lot advertising sign; and (iv) 15 m to any sign located in a bus shelter; (f) A wall mounted billboard shall project not more than 600 mm, excluding externally mounted lighting. 10.3.3 Height and Clearance The height of a billboard shall not exceed: (a) 7 m, except that where it exceeds 6.25 m in height it shall not exceed 3.7 m in width and shall incorporate all electrical servicing wholly within the sign; - (b) the height of the front roof line of any building on the same site or an adjacent site, with or without the intervention of a lane, whichever is less; and PROBLEMS: 1. What is meant by "front roof line" and can there be more than one on a building? 2. Can a billboard not exceed the front roof line of the lowest building on a site even though that building may be far away? - e.g., the PNE is one site with a variety of building heights? APPENDIX A Page 3 of 3 3. What is meant by "an adjacent site" and how close does it have to be - within the same block? across a street? - (c) 300 mm above any side or rear roof line of any building on the same site or an adjacent site, when the billboard is within 5 m of the building. PROBLEM: 1. Same as above for front roof line, but applicable to side and rear roof lines. 10.3.4 Area and Dimensions The sign area of a billboard shall not exceed 21.5 m›. 10.3.5 Landscaping A landscaped planter the width of the billboard shall be provided and maintained for any billboard exceeding 6.25 m in height unless the Director of Planning is satisfied that suitable landscaping already exists where the billboard is to be placed. For all other billboards, landscaping shall be provided and maintained to the satisfaction of the Director of Planning.